it started with a smell, then the discovery of a body. >> how your paycheck will take a hit as we all go over the fiscal cliff. >> letters in a thrift store that never made it to the mailbox. how they were finally delivered . police have arrested two people in what they call a plot to cash in on a man's death. that plan started to unravel when a bad smell drew police to the backyard of a home, and once there, police found more than a body. kristen is in vallejo and takes the story from there. >> reporter: deputies say not only did the suspects hide the

man's body, they were also secretly robbing him blind. >> reporter: they noticed a smell coming from the backyard. >> my sister walked over there, and she's, like, wow! she could smell it from that far off. >> reporter: a smell so gruesome, it could only be one thing. >> the body. >> reporter: the body of of a 60-year-old man, a drifter, who had been dead for two years. his son never told a soul. instead, he allegedly hid the body in a large box he had been carrying around and stashed the box here in a relative a backyard. >> i can't believe somebody would even think about doing that. >> reporter: even worse, joseph and his girlfriend began to collecting the dead man's money,

thousands of dollars in pension checks over two years. >> reporter: rel atives at the home did not want to speak. authorities say they didn't know that richard had died and only realized there was a body in their yard when they began to smell. now the suspects are behind bars, facing charges for theft and elder abuse. we don't know exactly how richard died. he had been severely ill before he died, but authorities have not charged joseph or his girlfriend in this death. however this is still under investigation. >> and apparently they haven't charged him yet, but would it just be for not disposing of the body correctly and theft? >> reporter: we're looking at elder abuse, theft, and not disposing of the body correctly. but because it was so

decomposed, it's unclear if it was a murder. a young woman finds herself in the gears of the criminal invest system. she was drunk behind the wheel when she ran down a group of people sight-seeing at twin peaks. >> reporter: instead of upholding the law, she found herself on the wrong side of the law. >> hoping to become a police officer. >> reporter: she was about to graduate from college. the san francisco district attorney charged the 23-year-old woman with driving under the influence, hit and run, and vehicular manslaughter. those are just some of the six charges she's facing after police say she drove her car into a group of people last week at the twin peaks vista point in san francisco. the accident killed a 56-year-old woman visiting from china and injured two others. police say the injuries knocked the three pedestrians

30 feet down a hillside. while the victim's family did not appear in court, the suspect's relatives came out to the hearing. their attorney did speak saying gina is praying for the victims. >> gina and the entire family is destroyed by what happened. and i think it's fair to say that their main concern is for the victims' family. >> reporter: the district attorney says he will prosecute this case aggressively. he said this is another example of why people should not drink and drive. >> we are very concerned that the use of alcohol and driving especially during the holiday season when there are so many people attending parties. >> reporter: a judge set the bail amount at $2 million. if she's able to make that bail, she will not be able to drink or drive. she is scheduled to

return to court on monday. santa rosa condo complex. t 66-year-old woman was discod a body was found floating in ayla going to at a santa -- in a lagoon in a santa rosa housing complex. police are waiting for autopsy results. a face broke out, and a 43-year-old woman used a box cutter to injure two family members. the woman was arrested. in oakland, a man cleaning out his basement found more than 5 pounds of dynamite. he called police and the bomb squad showed up and removed the tnt. about a dozen neighbors had to be evacuated. the explosives had been there for more than 30 years! they date back to world war ii. the debate over gun control

has moved to one of privacy over protection after someone published a map of gun owners' homes. the maps don't show whether the residents actually oregon guns, just that they're legally able to. >> the people that are actually registering the guns and following all the rules, they're law-abiding citizens, and they should be protected. >> the new york journal news is standing behind the project. the paper also pointed out it published a similar list back in 2006. los angeles became the latest city to hold a gun buy-back in the wake of the connecticut school shooting. in fact, la held the event several months early, hoping to capitalize on the momentum seen at other buy-backs like in oakland and san francisco. john blackstone was there. >> they're hunting rifles. >> reporter: angela

came to the buy-back with two hunting rifles and thoughts of the children who died in connecticut. >> it was emotional. of i cried. and i just don't like those for everybody's children. >> reporter: so you're getting rid of your only guns? >> these are the only guns. this is the best thing i can do. >> reporter: la 's mayor moved up the buy-back usually held on mother's day. the city overs gift certificates up to $200. the nra might say you're just taking guns out of the hands of the good guys. >> well shgs , they said that what we need are more good guys with guns. well, there are a lot of good guys with guns. we have more good guys with guns than any place in the world, and we also have more gun violence.

>> reporter: guns likely to be used in crimes are unlikely to be turned in at gun buy-backs. the mayor said since 2009, los angeles has collected 8,000 guns at buy-backs, a period in which violent crime in the city has dropped by 33%. >> this is part of a much bigger effort, a comprehensive effort to address gun and gang violence. and like i said in the city of la, the proof is in the pudding. >> reporter: the line of cars stretched for 6 blocks as people waited up to three hours to turn in their guns. >> it's my sympathy card to connecticut. >> reporter: many people are turning in their guns here that land officials expect this to be -- that lapd officials expect this to be their most successful buy-back ever. president obama will spend the night aboard airforce 1 making a red-eye trip from hawaii to washington. when he arrives on thursday, it's right

back to budget negotiations with the fiscal cliff deadline less than a week away. >> reporter: as the president wrapped up his vacation, federal workers trickled back into the nation's capital. the only people who can avert the fiscal cliff, members of the house and senate, have not returned. and in just six days, a 2% payroll tax is set to expire, along with the bush-era tax cuts, shrinking the average worker's paycheck in 2013 by about $1,500. long-term unemployment benefits for about 2 million jobless americans are also set to expire, and $110 billion worth of spending cuts to domestic and defense programs will kick in, forcing layoffs in the public and private sector. if congress doesn't act, all the cuts and new taxes will squish the

economy back into a mild recession by mid-2013. the impact of some of these new cuts and taxes wouldn't be felt immediately on january 1st because the irs and other agencies didn't expect it to come to this. it could be a few weeks before workers see more money being withheld in their paychecks. george h. w. bush is in intensive care. a fever that kept him in the hospital over christmas has gotten worse. a bush family spokesperson says the 88-year-old was alert and joking with doctors but has yet to respond to fever re-reduce reducing medication. there is a settlement in the runaway car debacle. the payout coming to million was toyota drivers. >> i opened it up and i saw sue's name.

and right away, i thought a card from an angel! >> lost and found. the thrift store discovery that managed to connect friends that were lost and found a new friend along the way. >> and your next batch of clean shirts could cost a little more. the international trade dispute that has your dry cleaner wired for a price hike. >> mother nature sprayed and windex, and the radar is squeaky clean! nothing out there! when does the rain come back? the answer in your forecast. ,,,,,,,,,,

annual "treecycling" program starts next week getting tired of your christmas tree? san francisco's annual tree-cycling program starts next week. they dragged out that chipper today to show us what it does with the trees. last year, more than 500 tons of christmas trees were collected in san francisco. toyota says it will pay more than $1 billion to settle a class action lawsuit over unintended acceleration in its vehicles. it would be one of the largest upon its type in automotive history. and it will install special safety features on 3 million cars. >> if for consumers it means the two major defects in toyota vehicles are going to get fixed. the bad news is how many more

relevance and defects there are? toyota in the last three years has recalled over 10 million vehicles. >> this settlement does not resolve claims by people who want money for injury or death linked to the problems. a group of bay area women received a priceless gift. it all started with a discovery in a thrift store. >> these five cards must have somehow gotten mixed in. >> reporter: she was at a thrift store in hayward when she found five cards sealed shot with addresses but no stamps, tucked away on a lower backshelf. >> the handwriting was scribbly. >> reporter: she put stamps on them with a little note attached, explain who she was and where she found the letters. as it turns out, this card that pam put a stamp on made its way

to this home in alameda. this card was supposed to have been sent 5 years ago. >> and i open it, up, and i saw sue bunker's name. and i thought a card from an angel! >> reporter: sue passed away two years ago from cancer. and these three women were her closest friends. all three receiving sue's holiday cards five years later, thanks to pam. carolyn's occurred: >> may 2007, be full of good health, great travels, and occasional ice cream socials. it is nice to know we're still in touch. >> reporter: without the other knowing, they each sent a thank you note to pam for taking the time to mail the cards. they also shared glowing thoughts about their friend >> i was so touched by the whole that you feel gesture! i

had to just sit down and send her a message. >> dear pam, your that you feelness in choosing to mail those -- thoughtfulness in choosing to mail those envelopes touched my soul. >> reporter: they decided to meet and toast to their new friend, and their old friend. >> it was just an amazing christmas story. >> reporter: and sue was toasting right along with them, and smiling. hangers! well, c-b-s 5 reporter don ford tells us: ngers has come you may remember faye dunnaway screaming "no more wire hangers. " the fight as come to your neighborhood dry cleaner. >> reporter: who would have thought the simple act of dropping off your dry cleaning would involve international politics? >> most of all the hangers we buy today are made in vietnam or

china. >> reporter: the u.s. commerce department says they have flooded the market, forcing all u.s. manufacturers out of business. so the feds slapped a 187% tariff on the imported hangers, more than doubling the cost to dry cleaners. >> that certainly did drive the price of hangers up. we were paying probably 4-5 cents a hanger. now it's anywhere from 8-10 cents a hanger. >> reporter: customers noticed. >> they never like it, but it's the cost of supplies. you have to do it. >> reporter: hangers are hardly worth harping about. the real cost increases are from utilities, chemical, and wages. >> reporter: when you run through nearly 10,000 hangers a month, every cent counts. and recycling is highly encouraged. if you have hangers hanging around the house, hand them back in! that's fewer foreign hangers that have to be

purchased. welcome to the wettest month of 2012! it was march until yesterday. now we've seen half a foot of rainfall in san francisco. we're dry tonight. how long is that going to stick around? ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

the storm system spawned tornadoes in some states and out blizzard condit a powerful winter storm that hit much of the midwest shows no signs of backing down. it spawned whiteout blizzard conditions in other states. governors in texas and mississippi have declared a state of emergency after tornadoes battered hundreds of homes and more than 1,000 flights have been canceled across the country. >> i had a bad feeling when we were on our way. >> some airlines are issuing flexible travel policies for travelers holding tickets for

today and tomorrow. >> the rain may be gone for a day or two, but saturated hillsides can still pose a big danger. plenty of small landslides like this one are all over. one nearby morrison canyon road remains closed. we will be seeing more rain soon enough. >> we're not completely done with the rainfall just yet. what we need is a prolonged period of dry weather which we're not going to see for a while to decrease that landslide threat. tonight we're dry! we'll take it. a chilly night too. oakland and san francisco, we get that heat island affect, all the buildings, asphalt, traps the heat at night and you typically stay warmer. dry on the radar.

showers in the south bay as recently as 6:00, but they are now well to the south of san jose. lows tonight, you're going to wake up to 34 in santa rosa. 38 for san rafael, 40s for san jose and pacifica. we are in between weather systems. the storm track is amazingly still headed toward northern california. are we going to get a break between storms or is there another one coming? we're talking about a break right now. the winds go clockwise around high pressure. a northwest flow of air tomorrow. but you will be dry and chilly with partly sunny skies. by friday, our next rain-maker with about half as much rainfall as on christmas. rainfall returning late friday, early saturday, no flooding concerns at all, but rain will be falling by friday afternoon. all of tomorrow, the first half of friday, dry.

the rest of the weekend is dry. an excellent weekend with lots of fresh snow in the ski areas. san jose tops out at 54. cupertino, 54. livermore 53, antioch 53 . rain is back late friday, early saturday, then we dry things out. sunday looking dry. new year's eve, nice , sunny, upper 50s. new year's day, good as well. no big storms but a chance of rain coming back as soon as friday afternoon. nfl pro -bowl votes are in. and the warriors, a little chippy on the road!

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did not have a player selecd to raider nation, sorry! first time since 2003 the raiders did not have a player selected to the pro bowl. 49ers? that's a different story! they got nine on the team! a franchise-tying record, including six on defense, holden smith, justin smith, linebackers patrick willis, bowman, and dante whitner. frank gore was one of three offensive players picked. salt lake city, seth curry set the warriors off to a great

start at the jazz. he scored the warriors' first 11 points! the warriors, jack with 15, up 8 in the 2nd. then a little later, it gets a little physical! they received technical, and david lee was in the mix, scored 18, and the warriors win their 11th on the road, 94-83! but the story was they won 11 games on the road all of last year. >> all last year >> and they already have 11 now! it's not even the end of the year! >> playoffs, playoffs. [ laughter ] e news is always on c-b-s s-f dot com. >> see you at 11:00.

,,,,,, oh, you have a keurig vue brewer? oh, it's great! now i can brew my coffee just the way i love it.